Dear Friends,
This week we start reading the Book of Bamidbar, Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah. The word “bamidbar” means “in the desert,” a reference to where the Jewish people were at the time. But it is also a reference to the “desert” nature of the Torah, in the sense that it is wide open territory for everyone to take advantage of and make their own. The Torah was given to the Jewish people in order for each and every one of us to make it our own, by delving into it and discovering its beauty and inner secrets.
This week's Torah portion of Bamidbar has a particular relevance to the festival of Shavuot. We can find this connection in the opening words of the portion, where G-d commands, "Count the number of all the congregation of the Children of Israel." When things are counted, they stand in a relation of equality; the greatest man and the least are each counted once; no more, no less. And since, as Rashi tells us, the census was a token of G-d's love, it must have been a gesture towards that which is equal in every Jew. Not his intellect, not his moral standing, but his essence: his Jewish soul. So the point of the census was to bring the soul of each Jew into prominence, to the surface of awareness.
Rashi writes that G-d counts His people all the time; and yet, as Rashi himself points out, they were counted only three times in the first year and once the month after leaving Egypt. Then they were counted only once more during their wanderings in the wilderness, and subsequently only at very infrequent intervals (according to a Midrash, only a total of nine times until today, and the tenth time will be when Moshiach comes). But, if the point of the counting was to reveal the essence of each Jewish soul, then this revelation has a depth which places it beyond the erosions of time--it is operative, literally, all the time.
The differences between the three countings which Rashi mentions were evolutionary stages in a process of revelation. In the first, the Jewish soul was awakened by the love of G-d; in the second, it began to work its influence on the external life of the Israelites; and in the third, it finally suffused all their actions.
The first census was on the Israelites' departure from Egypt, and it aroused their spirit of self-sacrifice to the extent that they followed G-d into a barren wilderness. But it left their emotions untouched.
The second was prior to building the Tabernacle. It reached their intellect and emotions, because they were preparing for the work that was to bring G-d's Presence into their midst. But still the impetus came from outside: G-d's command set them to their work, not inner compunction.
But with the third census came the actual service of the Tabernacle, when the Israelites--by their own actions--brought G-d into their midst. Then all their actions were a testimony to the union of the Jewish soul with G-d.
In this way, the connection between Bamidbar and Shavuot becomes clear. When the Torah was given, Israel and G-d were united in such a way that G-d sent down His revelation from above; and the Children of Israel were themselves elevated. And we read, in preparation for our annual re-creation of the event, the portion which tells us of the third census when the two modes of revelation are brought together.
This Shabbat we bless the new month of Sivan, the month in which the holiday of Shavuot falls.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful Shabbat!
Sincerely,
Rabbi Levi Fogelman